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Imagine a world like today, where every road is mapped and no geography of the planet Earth is Hidden. In such an era, Japan has discovered something remarkable, which is unbelievable and gave a literal shock to the world.
Keep reading to know about the interesting discovery that Japan has discovered. Yes! By now you must have heard or guessed in the news why Japan is trending. "Japan has recently discovered that there are 7000 newest islands that Japan was never aware of till date".
This discovery revealed that there are 14, 125 islands which comes under Japan's territory rather then just 6,852 which was the official number of Japanese islands as per the reports by Japanese Coast Guard, 1987. Yet, this does not imply that the country's size has altered.
How is it even possible?
You all are thinking the same right? How is it even possible that Japan was unaware of not one or two buses 7,000 islands right?
If we see the reports and believe, thousands of such islands were tallied as one when the Japanese Coast Guard counted the islands 35 years ago since the equipment available at the time was unable to discern between bigger individual islands or small clusters of islands.
Since then, more volcanic eruptions have helped create new islands, and these two factors have helped Japan's total island landmass nearly quadruple. The island nation's topography is constantly changing as a result of natural disasters including extreme weather, which could cause Japan to lose or gain land area.
According to reports, the GSI employed the same method to determine the number of islands, designating only those that had natural structures and circumferences of 100 meters or more. The same calculating techniques were employed to establish Japan's territory, but the GSI added the use of aerial images to further verify that the islands were not artificially regained land by comparing the results to earlier maps.
A GSI spokesperson further explained that despite the lack of a global standard for counting islands, they employed the same size criterion as other studies that were conducted 35 years ago. According to reports, the revised total of 14,125 islands excludes any artificial islands which are man-made.
Definition of Island Given:
Here comes a new definition of an Island as per the sources that the sandbanks and islands found in lakes and rivers were not included in the 1987 assessment because the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea did not consider them as islands at any cost. The definition now which has been given by the by the governing officials is "a naturally formed portion of land, encircled by water & which is above water at high tide."
The four major islands that makeup Japan's territory are Shikoku, Kyushu, Honshu, and Hokkaido. Honshu is the Japan's largest island & is home to major cities like Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto.
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